SoHo in New York provides the perfect backdrop for Atelier Beauté Chanel. The cobblestoned roads, high-end galleries, luxury boutiques, and independent-designer shops offer the ideal setting for the “atelier de beauté” or beauty workshop.
CHANEL revenues: $12.3 billion in the year 2019
It is here that Chanel is curating the next generation of hyper-personalized experience– with a little help from in-house makeup artists, Instagram-worthy moments, product sampling, and ordering products. Beauty aficionados are provided the freedom to wander, discover, at an leisurely pace– as if providing a tranquil beauty retreat far from the maddening crowd.
Chanel came up with Atelier Beauté Chanel concept in 2019- a unique, fully immersive retail experience focusing on customer engagement rather than a pushy Sale pitch. This ‘Happy Hour’ inspired setting, catering to a growing luxury clientele including out-of-towners, is packaged to inspire IG-worthy moments, beauty lessons, and the opportunity to be part of a Brand story focused on the clientele’s individual needs. This sharp focus on the open space where selling is just a peripheral entity, where a whole community of experts, apprentices, and influencers gather to learn, discover, share really makes the store stand out.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AT CHANEL
For many like us, who works on Digital Transformation and Omni Channel strategies- Chanel is a shining example of blurring the gaps between the physical and digital channels. This omni-channel approach uses physical stores as sensory hubs to boost visibility, stimulate growth, and deliver a luxurious beauty experience. Enhancing shopping experiences entails a complete re-imagination of stores using hyper-personalization, augmented reality, automation, the IoT, RFID, and NFC. More often than not, it requires a complete rejig of existing business models, processes, markets, channels, and pricing.
One key element that really works is the store’s self-guided tour where visitors can freely explore and experiment with products and services without intervention from sales assistants. This non-intrusive, open concept works well as the luxury segment which Chanel targets is predominantly built on the psychographics of –
- luxury as evidence of success or affluence
- luxury as a differentiator
- demanding the best in quality, service, and utility
Visitors are asked to create a Digital profile on a Chanel microsite, which allows them to save products they tried at the store for future purchase in-store or in other Chanel outlets, book consulting sessions with stylists. This website will enable Chanel to provide an excellent personalization level based on user profile and activity within the store regarding – whether they are a new visitor or recurring.
ECOMMERCE VS CHANEL?
Many of Chanel’s competitors like Estee Lauder, Christian Dior, LVMH, Gucci, Armani, Prada, and L’Oreal are busy building eCommerce capabilities capitalizing on excellent growth trajectory of their eCommerce channels. On their part, Chanel has famously resisted joining the bandwagon – and this is due to Chanel’s elitist brand image, exclusivity, and the unwillingness to dilute their luxury image by resorting to mass market expansions.
As their competitors are focusing on eCommerce and Social commerce, Chanel’s going the old school way with a physical store with key elements from digital transformation and personalization. Chanel’s store definitely looks like a blueprint of the ‘store of the future,’ which can be equipped with virtual showroom capabilities, technology-enabled mirrors, machine-based product suggestions, contactless payments, and so on. And, we cannot undermine the essential roles humans play as ‘Consultants’ and Style Experts who caters to a large group of loyal customers in their beauty journey.
Bruno Pavlovsky, President of fashion at Chanel, once famously said- “Come into the boutique, try things on, decide what you like – that’s part of the experience. And the people who don’t want that? They don’t come to Chanel,” effectively underlining the brand’s e-commerce strategy.
Thus, with strategic intent, Chanel has consciously kept themselves traditionally focused rather than come up with an all-out e-commerce strategy. As of now, Chanel’s branding strategy seems to be working well– with a blend of prestige products, digital transformation and personalization.
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CHANEL SOHO, NYC Address:
Location Address: ATELIER BEAUTÉ CHANEL, 120.5 Wooster St, New York, NY 10012
